Afternoon all.Pressure.Pres·sure [presh-er] noun, verb, -sured, -sur·ing.noun• the exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc., in contact with it: the pressure of earth against a wall.• Physics . force per unit area. Symbol: P Compare stress ( def. 6 ) .• Meteorology . atmospheric pressure.• Electricity . electromotive force.• the state of being pressed or compressed.• harassment; oppression: the pressures of daily life.• a constraining or compelling force or influence: the social pressures of city life; financial pressure.• urgency, as of affairs or business: He works well under pressure.

verb (used with object)• to force (someone) toward a particular end; influence: They pressured him into accepting the contract.

Yep, this one is all about pressure. Newcastle have poured in on Spurs with their win over Swansea on Good Friday, now Spurs can slather it over Arsenal with a win at the Stadium of Light.

That's far from a given, though. Sunderland have lost on home soil only once since November, should've completed a double over Manchester City last weekend, and are playing with the verve and swagger of brash young pop stars. You know, REO Speedwagon, Norman Greenbaum and the rest of the popular beat combos the kids are listening to today.

Sunderland captain and walking booking Lee Cattermole had been a doubt pre-match, but he seems to have recovered from his knee injury sufficiently to start. Aaron Lennon is on the bench for Spurs, somewhat surprisingly.

Click-clack, click-clack … and out come the teams into the sunshine. Stadium of Light living up to its name today, something that White Hart Lane will never able to do without the help of a huntsman.

Pre-match email dept. "Sunderland have been inconsistent lately," writes Chas Marshall. "Terrible against Everton, superb against City. If they play today like they did last week, our 'friends' in Newcastle will be celebrating at 2:30. Can't remember the last time the Mags wanted us to win."

PEEP! Off we go. Sunderland in stripes, Spurs in that lilac effort.

2 min: Sunderland have barely had a touch in the opening couple of minutes

3 min: Spurs are sporting a lopsided formation – they're narrow on the right with Van der Vaart drifting inside, but have plenty of width on the left with Bale.

8 min: Bale goes flying under challenge from Bardsley. The Sunderland man 'likes a tackle', but Bale rather made the most of that.

10 min: "re: White Hart Lane not living up to its name without help of a huntsman," writes London_Dog on Twitter. "Surely that should be pub." Well, to be fair, the pub's are named after the animal, rather than the other way round (or at least, that's my understanding).

13 min: … whipped in deliciously by Van der Vaart, and Adebayor, with the freedom of the six yard box, should probably do better than head straight into the arm of Bardsley. The Togolese's penalty appeals are optimistic.

16 min: Sunderland swing in a corner, Friedel grabs it at the second or third attempt.

17 min: Sandro, who either has vivid yellow and green teeth or, more likely, is wearing a gumshield (not sure I've ever seen that before), wins a corner. Van der Vaart swings it deep and wide of the far post.

19 min: "Surely a huntsman would be more likely to remove a hart from somewhere than to put it there or keep it there (except perhaps his dinner table)," writes Robin Hazlehurst. "Wouldn't a gamekeeper or zoo warden or James Herriot be more to the point?" Hmm. Possibly. Any other grounds needing outside help to live up to their name?

21 min: Bendtner spins and twizzles 40 yards from goal – his own goal – and loses the ball. Then concedes a free-kick with a hefty challenge on Parker.

22 min: Adebayor gets a sight of goal, but Turner is quick to make the block. "Plymouth's Home Park?" suggests John Phillips. "Can't live up to its name unless somebody moves in."

24 min: McClean skitters past Walker – that's a match-up of two speedsters – and the Tottenham man brings him down. Foy keeps his cards in his pocket. But a nice attacking base for the Black Cats …

25 min: … Larsson fizzes it in, headed out for a corner. Then another …

26 min: … nodded clear by Walker. "The City Ground, home, as I'm sure you're all aware, of Nottingham Forest is located yards outside the city of Nottingham's borders, just the wrong side of the Trent," writes Ben List. "Notts County's name is technically wrong too." Nothing a few wild flowers and a field mouse or two couldn't sort out.

27 min: Colback, filling in at left-back, makes a solid tackle on Walker as the full-back charges forward. This is smouldering rather than on-fire at the moment.

29 min: "Of course if he was not a very good huntsman, or one troubled by a vegetarian conscience, his aim may stray and he could just end up with White Hart Lame," writes comedy's Robin Hazlehurst. "I'm here all week, try the venison."

30 min: Colback's passback just has the legs to reach Mignolet with Adebayor closing down fast.

31 min: "Underhill is mainly uphill," notes Phil Booth. "And the Emirates could do with a couple more hereditary federal administrations to join in. Maybe they should bring in Tufnell Park." Tottenham corner … nodded clear once more.

32 min: Sandro gets away with one as Sunderland break. Sessegnon almost picks his pocket on halfway, but the Brazilian stretches out a toe and gets the tinieist of touches on the ball to snuff out the attack.

33 min: Sunderland with some concerted pressure for the first time in the game. Kilgallon almost wraps his foot around a close range effort, then from the corner Gardner nods a header at goal that is so soft it probably moisterised Friedel's hands as he grabbed it.

35 min: "What about the Sports Direct Arena?" suggests Mark Guthrie. "For that to live up to its name it would need to be full of overweight, half-drunken, nylon clad... Oh, hang on. (I'm a Newcastle fan, so it's allowed!)"

36 min: Modric pitching-wedges a free-kick into the box, but Sunderland have defended very well thus far. The resurrection of Matt Kilgannon's career is one of O'Neill's most remarkable feats.

42 min: Tottenham get back on the front foot after the best part of 10 minutes of Sunderland pressure. Van der Vaart gets a sight of goal after Modric's run is blocked, but Kilgallon makes a fine block.

44 min: This is drifting towards half-time now. "How about the Parc Des Princes?" suggests Simon Frank. "All we need is for one of William/Harry to show up, plus the mighty Minneapolis one, who could sport a Tottenham away shirt, to keep it current."

Peep! Spurs end the half on the front foot, with the ball pinballing around the Sunderland box, but there's no way through. This could go either way in the second half.

Half-time listening dept.

Half-time email dept.

"The two Ullevi arenas in Gothenburg would need an asa-priest and some form of sacrificial offering to live up to their name," writes Jesper Haglund. "And Camp Nou would have to be torn down and rebuilt."

"Fluminense's ground is/was called Laranjeiras, which, along with being my favourite word in any language, means "orange grove" in Portuguese," writes Simon Frank. "Surely that wouldn't be too difficult to arrange?"

"Now, were I in MoN's position, I'd take off Gardner and bring on Richardson at left back, moving Colback into central midfield," Chas Marshall. "Gardner's been ineffective, Richardson would give us a bit more pace and width, and Colback has been pretty enterprising in recent weeks."

54 min: Spurs continue to monopolise the ball without finding a way though. That is until Bale skips past Colbeck and pulls back to Modric. He opts to backheel in the direction of Van der Vaart who scoops over. Not sure why the Croatian didn't ping an effort at goal then. He was very well placed.

55 min: "Surely Craven Cottage would need to be some small, quaint country dwelling wi th somehow cowardly, pitiful attributes to live up to its name?" writes Declan Johnston, who has a point.

57 min: Couple of emails suggesting Young Boys of Berne's former home ground. We're not going there – this is a family MBM. Bardsley snuffs out another skittering Bale run.

59 min: Assou-Ekotto lifts a cross into the box, Bale, completely unmarked on the penalty spot, guides his header onto the roof of the net. Cue confused 'Whose fault was that?" looks in the Sunderland defence.

60 min: Fine defending from Walker as McClean looks to get on the end of Larsson's low cross. Corner …

61 min: … horribly overhit by Larsson.

62 min: Sandro gets his name writtten into Chris Foy's Little Book of Bad, Bad Boys after sliding in very late on Kilgallon.

63 min: Sessegnon skips forward but, with the Tottenham defence backpeddling, he can't quite slide a pass through to Colback.

64 min: Cattermole gives the ball away. Sessegnon gives the ball away. And a Spurs player, who I didn't quite pick out, lumps the ball out of play for a throw in. Scrappy, would be the word.

67 min: "If this was match were a bad passing drinking game, where you imbibe for every wayward pass, I'd be sitting in a police sell with no shoes," writes David Fallon. "And it's only the 65th minute."

69 min: Fine ball from Cattermole puts Bardsley away down the right, but his first-time cross is just awful. Sessegnon had got in front of his man in the box too, so it was the right idea. But woefully executed.

71 min: Cattermole hobbles off, and despite a look of anguish on his face he's going to continue. A knee injury has been troubling him of late.

73 min: Lennon slips in Van der Vaart, whose through on goal, bearing down on Mignolet. Kilgallon, I think, gets back to pressure the Dutchman, but he still sends the ball goalwards. Turner gets back to clear the ball from the line, with a combination of thigh and, inadvertently, hand.

74 min: "The Icelandic football team Valur plays at a football ground called Hlíðarendi," writes Kari Tulinius. "It shares a name with the site of a famous last stand in a saga, where Gunnar chopped down many an enemy before being dispatched at last. Lee Cattermole should play there one day."

75 min: Stick a fork in Cattermole, he's done. On comes Vaughan in his stead.

77 min: Gallas whacks away Sessegnon's pass in the direction of Bendtner, but most of the action at the moment is over by the technical areas. Saha for Adebayor is the latest switch and there's a couple more to come.

78 min: Gardner bundles over Modric. Dangerous free-kick this …

79 min: … thumped in by Van der Vaart, but over the head of Kaboul. More subs: Bardsley off, Richardson on.

81 min: Defoe has been waiting to come on for at least five minutes, and at last he replaces Van der Vaart. Richardson, meanwhile, clubs a long ball out for a Spurs goal kick.

83 min: Walker trips McClean to hand Sunderland a free-kick on the left edge of the box. Cue Larsson …

84 min: … whipped in and nodded off the line by Kaboul. Excellent defending.

86 min: Lennon hops and pops inside off the wing, but Sunderland get numbers back to snuff out the danger.

87 min: Larsson goes into the book for diving as Kaboul sticks out a leg. Not very smart from the Swede.

88 min: The Hair Bear Bunch's Assou-Ekotto goes into Foy's book after bundling over Sessegnon.

89 min: Gardner makes a quite wonderful tackle to deny Bale, as the winger surges through. It looked clean as a whistle in real time, but replays show it was a hefty old challenge. Bale gets a bit of magic sponge treatment.

90 min: Bale looks like he might be done for the day. Three minutes added time to play, by the way.

90+1 min: Bale has limped back on.

90+2 min: Vaughan goes into the book for a lunge on Lennon. Last chance for Spurs to put in in the mixer …

90+3 min: … headed out for a corner …

90+4 min: … nodded clear.

PEEP! PEEP!! PEEEEEEEP!!! All over. Not a bad point for Spurs, but a bit of a stodgy stew of a game.